For as long as I can remember (which is about 13 years if you’re keeping track), I’ve thought my dialogue was the absolute bomb. The best thing about my writing and the one thing that would never ever need to change.

I’ve also known for just as long that I have a weak spot when it comes to working in description and backstory, but that’s a different blog post.

Dialogue – turns out way back then I wasn’t quite right. I didn’t write the most amazing dialogue in history. It’s gotten better since then, at least I think so. I have a couple of friends who agree and one or two who don’t. (Wow, I made it sound like I have lots of friends who read my work. Nice ^_^).

Here’s the thing about dialogue for me. It’s what most of my stories are based on. At least it used to be. It’s the reason I don’t write the surroudning description so well. When I first picture a scene in my head, it’s all about what the characters are saying to each other and how they’re saying it. It has very little to do with where they are, what they’re fidgeting with, or what other senses are being called into play.

And this morning as I pondered why I’m having trouble writing the current scenes in my head, I realized it’s because I don’t have any dialogue to go with them. I have little snippets of action – like five second blurbs. It’s kind of the equivilent of watching a youtube video without the sound and having no idea what’s giong on and trying to fill in that minute and a half as you watch for the first time.

Why, though?

Tangent
Ever watch a Quinten Tarentino (sp?) movie? Or a Kevin Smith movie? Ever notice how all of the characters are capable of these amazing, intelligent, introspective conversations that most of us only have once a year and only when we’re very lucid and with our very best friends?
/Tangent

I suffer from the same ailment. Or rather, my characters do. They’re all painfully insightful, intelligent, willing to talk things through, logical…even when they’re being irrational and unreasonable.

It’s a horrid habit that I’ve been struggling to break. I’m trying to learn that not everyone has a 120 IQ. That’s the case in what I’m writing right now. It’s a character driven piece where my average characters have to learn and grow in order to complete the arc. They’re from different social backgrounds than me, they’re much less afraid of conflict, and a couple of them are a lot more willing to use other people to get what they want.

And I have to get inside that mindset in order to know how they talk and interract with people.

The thing is, now that I’ve figured out that’s my hang-up (today), it’s making it a lot easier to picture the conversation. I just have to tell myself “think…Jerry Springer meets the Mabinogi (or WoW if you prefer) social network”. And I’m 75% of the way there.

How do y’all get inside the heads of characters who don’t think like you?